Your job search strategy may need some tweaking when looking for a new job. Whether it is with a new company or a promotion within your own organization, requires time and effort. To make your job search more effective you need to take five fundamental steps on the road to success:
- Analyze your skills
- Present a winning resume and cover letter
- Manage your job search
- Prepare for interview success
- Negotiate your job offer
Step 1: Analyzing your Skills
The most crucial step in the job search process is to assess what skills you have to offer to your future boss. At an interview, you will have to tell your story. An interviewer will not remember your precise details, but they will remember your story, once it is filled with practical examples.
This means that you have to be able to explain the four ‘what’s’ of your job:
- What do you do?
- What skills do you require to successfully carry out your role?
- What have you achieved?
- What benefit did your company realize by employing you?
The answers to these questions can be used to draft a one-minute sound bite of the skills that you have to offer to your future boss. This sales pitch should incorporate details about your role, your achievements and your personal qualities and should be tailored to the position you are applying for.
For example, ‘experienced Software Engineer who has worked in a multinational telecommunications environment; part of a team that developed an innovative process for a groundbreaking platform; proficient in all aspects of the development life cycle; used a variety of languages particularly C++ and Java; excellent organizational skills combined with a practical and resourceful approach to problem solving.’
Step 2: Writing a Winning Resume
This summary of your skills becomes the cornerstone of your resume. Your resume must be tailored to the needs of your future boss so customize it accordingly. However, you cannot twist your experience into a pretzel to accommodate the job. Your history is fixed but you can extrapolate the skills most relevant to the future position.
Here are some guidelines to assist you to write a winning resume:
Recruiters don’t want to read a book. So, wherever possible, a one-page resume is preferred. However, do not delete important information to stay on one page. Many people have a two-page resume because they go back too far.
An American resume generally only goes back 10-12 years, 15 years at the most because recruiters are more interested in your recent experience and accomplishments. However, if you have important details to share and they take up two pages, so be it. Just guard against repetition. If you have redundant job descriptions this is a no-no.
Decide on your key selling points. Provide evidence of this experience. Include quantification – reduction in costs, increase in efficiency, improvement in processes, saving in time, etc.
Use simple, jargon-free words – if techno speak is required, explain it! Avoid abbreviations and spell out acronyms. Decide on the style after the structure and content have been finalized.
Step 3: Managing your Job Search
The third step to securing your job search success is to manage the process. There are three elements to effectively managing your job search process:
- Control channels
- Analyze jobs
- Construct compelling resume and cover letters
Controlling channels
There are four distinct job search channels. Draw on all four to maximize your success:
- Contacts Network and use (in a positive sense!) all of the people that you know, both professionally and personally.
- Media This includes print media (newspapers and professional/trade magazines), social media and internet sources.
- Agencies Access both online sources and the more traditional recruitment agencies.
- Direct contact Get in touch with companies that require your skill set, by contacting their Human Resource or Personnel department.
Analyzing jobs
Each job that you apply for is different, so you have to analyze its requirements to ensure a match between you and the role. This entails assessing the job description, the particular specifications and the environment within which the role operates. Draw up a checklist of the skills required for that job. If you have at least a 60% match, apply!
Constructing compelling cover letters
Your cover letter should contain three paragraphs:
- Why you are applying for the job
- How your skills match the requirements of the position
- What outcome you want to achieve (an interview!)
Step 4: Preparing for Interview Success
Your interviewer wants to know two things – can you do the job and will you fit in. Your resume prompts the interviewer’s questions in relation to whether you can you do the job. These questions revolve around the who, what, when, where, how and why of your current job (the technical details of your job).
The issue of whether you will fit in is crucial to your interview success. You may be technically superb, but if your interviewer believes that you will ‘upset the applecart,’ he/she will not hire you. This means that your interview preparation should also concentrate on the non-technical aspects of your role. For example, how you relate to your colleagues and boss, how you have contributed to your team, how you have resolved potential interpersonal difficulties, etc.
Regardless of whether you are talking about the technical aspects of your job, or the non-technical elements, use real life examples to illustrate your point. Provide a picture in the interviewer’s mind of the competent, capable person that you are.
By the way, always follow an interview with a thank you letter, and reiterate pertinent highlights of the discussion.
Step 5: Managing your Job Offer
Following a successful interview, build on your success by negotiating an attractive job offer. This involves maximizing your remuneration package and ensuring that your contract of employment exceeds the legal minimum.
Know what your own requirements are but make sure that they are in line with the reality of today’s labor market. You also need to ensure that all of your references give you a glowing testimonial and that they emphasize the skills that you want highlighted to use as leverage in obtaining the best package.